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Polaroid picture charm!

I’ve mentioned in past posts that I used to have an Etsy shop, and I used to sell these polaroid charms. They were a very big hit! I actually got the idea from another listing I saw on Etsy, but it was metal (and expensive), so I recreated it using polymer clay. The metal charm looked nice, but this actually looks like a polaroid, since I used white clay.

I started out by rolling out my clay really thin.

This is how thin it should be, as you’ll be layering it.

I made these guides from paper to lay over the clay and cut around them.

Next, I repeated the first few steps to make another square, and placed another paper guide for the window where my picture will go.

This part is tricky because it’s really easy to break the thin sides of the window.

Once the window was cut out, I placed it on top of the other square I cut out, pushing gently to fuse them together.

There will be little gaps around all the edges, that’s fine, because I fill them in later. I baked it in my preheated toaster oven at 275F for 10 minutes.

Then, I filled in the gaps with some more polymer clay and a knife like spackling a wall. Once it was all filled, I baked it for another 5-10 minutes.

Once the charm was all baked, I filed the sides to make it nice and clean looking, and to get rid of any little dust particles that might have gotten into the clay when I rolled it out. If you want to make it a ring, you could glue a ring base down on the back now.

Or, if you wanted to make it a necklace, like I did, you could glue a bail on. You could also poke a hole through the top for a jump ring before you bake it, if you don’t have bails. I liked mine at an angle, so I glued my bail on the top left corner. This glue works great! It’s just really smelly so don’t inhale as your gluing!

Last but not least, I put my picture in the window and wrote on the bottom. If you wanted it to be permanent, you could put resin over the picture, but I like to change mine around so I just tape mine in. When I want to change what it says, I just file away the words.

*Keep in mind* you could glue a magnet on the back as well! You could scale it up too!

Thanks! 🙂 I’m not sure, that sounds cool though! I’d give it a try but keep a close eye on it. If you have a toaster oven, I’d do it in there so you can see through the glass door and make sure it’s not starting to burn!

Well, you’ll just have to friend someone who can make you all the stuff =P And thank you!! I had no idea what that meant so I had to look it up! I’m so excited now 🙂 I would have had no idea why I had so many views today lol

Your blog is so beautiful that speak the words right out of my month. Theme and layout of your blog is great. I hope that you would be more improvements in your blog. i would like to read your new post…..

I am HOOKED! I have been looking for something special for my daughter. She is active duty AF and will be deploying in Jan for 6 months. When she goes that long, her buddy, Chewbacca the wonder dog, comes to ‘Mimi’s doggy day care’ to spend time with his cousins. I wanted to maker/give her something with his picture on it to take with her. GUESS what she will be getting for Christmas! I think Michaels should set you up with the ‘Workshop of the month’…they would TOTALLY increase their sales if people saw your stuff! Now I need to go find a decent picture of Chewy..he is ALL black! Kinda hard to get those shiny eyes when they disappear into his blackness! Pet Roscoe for me..he looks JUST like my Rookie!

Wow! Thank you for all the kind words 🙂 and most importantly, thank your daughter for her service!! I love that her dog’s name is Chewbacca! Too cute! I just sent you an email, hoping the e-mail on your blog is the correct one!

I wish you could have seen me when I got that call. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry..so I did BOTH! I had huge red puffy eyes and a GRIN from ear to ear! My son was in Junior high at the time. He didn’t know WHAT had happened..and thought I was pulling some kind of trick on him! I will send you a picture of my daughter’s charm of Chewy when I get it done..and thanks for posting the tutorial! PS your comment came thru on ‘no-reply’ so I could not send it straight back. 🙂

🙂 I don’t think I’d be able to get words out if I got that call!! Your story soooo just made my day! I’m just glad I saw it after he was found and not after he was lost, because I would totally be crying non stop, especially now that I have a pup of my own!